Key Figures · Companies · Maker

Ocean Pro

A personal watercraft parts name, for goods from exhaust kits to ride plates and flame arrestors, that its owner applied to register in 1987; Bombardier's 1998 handbook lists an Ocean Pro Engineering.

• a year printed above a fact on this page
• a year printed above no fact

Printed above the facts, 1987 to 1989, 1991, 1994 and 1996 to 1998. Printed above none, 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1995.

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What it made and sold

1988 · Likely

The same February 1988 issue's search passages show Ocean Pro advertising text that mentions a plate, and a list headed Ocean Pro hometown dealers that begins with Arizona.

Sources: PWI February 1988 trade probes

1997 · Likely

Group K's comments of 1997 on magazine articles name a Watercraft World article of 1997 that set out to show Ocean Pro bolt-on parts for the Kawasaki ZXi 900, and note that Ocean Pro flame arrestors were not among those in Splash's flame-arrestor test of July 1997.

Sources: Group K Between the Lines 1997

1998 · Likely

Bombardier's 1998 Sea-Doo Racing Handbook lists Ocean Pro Engineering, of Oceanside, California, for race parts and flame arresters among the aftermarket manufacturers it says it recommends; the 1996 edition does not list it (searched 2026-10-16). Reading that name as the Ocean Pro of the registry rests on the name and the flame arrestors in both, and is the archive's inference.

Sources: Sea-Doo Racing Handbook 1998; Sea-Doo Racing Handbook 1996; USPTO record serial 73670189

Patents and trademarks

1987 and 1988 · Confirmed

USPTO records Kenneth F. Klus, an individual, as registrant of OCEAN PRO PRODUCTS CA., U.S.A., applied for on 6 July 1987 and registered on 27 December 1988. The goods run from marine engine parts, among them exhaust kits, exhaust chambers, carburettors, pumps and impellers, to parts for single-person recreation jet boats, among them handlebars, steering adapters, ride plates and flame arrestors. The registration was cancelled in 2009 when no declaration of continued use was accepted. The registrant claims first use on 1 May 1980.

Sources: USPTO record serial 73670189

1989 · Confirmed

He also applied on 1 May 1989 for OCEAN PRO alone, for engine parts that include exhaust pipes, mufflers and jet pump intake gratings; the application was abandoned in 1991. That filing claims first use on 1 December 1978, so his own filings give two different first-use dates, each his own claim and neither a founding date.

Sources: USPTO goods sweep Oct 2026

1994, 1996 and 1997 · Confirmed

Two marks he applied for in 1994 are still registered: OCEAN PRO, registered on 8 October 1996 for engine and jet boat parts, among them pumps, cylinder heads, ride plates and flame arrestors, and VORTEX, registered on 25 March 1997 for flame arrestors for personal watercraft engines. Both have been renewed, and the registry now names a California corporation as owner of each. Their histories list an automatic update of assignment of ownership on 19 April 2017, which dates the registry's entry, not the transfer.

Sources: USPTO record serial 74613791; USPTO record serial 74532701

1988 and 1991 · Likely

US design patent D317,431, Jet ski ride plate, filed on 6 September 1988 and granted on 11 June 1991, names Kenneth F. Klus as inventor and no assignee. Reading it as an Ocean Pro design, from the same full name and the ride plates among his registered goods, is the archive's inference.

Sources: US design patent D317431; USPTO record serial 73670189

The business on record

1988 · Likely

Personal Watercraft Illustrated's volume 2 number 1 of 1988, read only through the Internet Archive's search, calls Ken Klus the owner of Ocean Pro Offshore Performance Products (the search text breaks it as "Off: shore") and quotes him, as a professional in the field, on what happens in an exhaust pipe. The Ocean Pro name is what ties the magazine's owner to the registrant.

Sources: PWI February 1988 search text

Names as printed

OCEAN PRO PRODUCTS CA., U.S.A. (USPTO record serial 73670189); Ocean Pro Offshore Performance Products (PWI February 1988 search text); Ocean Pro Engineering (Sea-Doo Racing Handbook 1998)

Elsewhere in the archive

• History chapter: The aftermarket: exhaust pipes and engine parts
• History chapter: The aftermarket: pumps, plates, mats, registers
• Era: The early years, in print
• Era: The makers and their machines

What the archive has not read (4)

• No independent document dates the founding, and the registrant's first-use claims of 1978 and 1980 are not printed as one (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-16).
• No document read dates when the OCEAN PRO and VORTEX marks passed to their present owner (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-16).
• The 1988 magazine article could not be read whole: the Internet Archive no longer holds the issue's files, only its search index (checked 2026-10-16).
• A 1985 mark for steering parts for single-person jet boats, KWIK-TURN, is registered to an individual whose middle initial differs from the Ocean Pro registrant's, so it is not joined here (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-16).

Documents cited on this page

• USPTO record serial 73670189 (tsdr.uspto.gov): Trademark Status and Document Retrieval record, serial 73670189, registration 1517776 (OCEAN PRO PRODUCTS CA., U.S.A.), United States Patent and Trademark Office, 1988-12-27; government, high. OCEAN PRO PRODUCTS CA., U.S.A., filed 6 July 1987, registered 27 December 1988, cancelled 1 August 2009 under Section 8, for marine engine parts and parts for single-person jet boats including ride plates and flame arrestors. Registrant and owner KLUS, KENNETH F., an individual. The first use claimed, 1 May 1980, is the registrant's sworn claim.
• PWI February 1988 trade probes (archive.org): Personal Watercraft Illustrated volume 2 number 1 of 1988 (read through archive.org's full-text search for trade names), Personal Watercraft Illustrated, read through the Internet Archive's full-text search, 1988; enthusiast media, medium. A second set of OCR passages from the same emptied item as the PWI February 1988 search text, one query per trade name: a Team Butch advertisement, a reference to a team backed by Performance Jet Ski, a Jetco catalogue offer and an Ocean Pro advertisement. Short passages with the OCR's errors, not articles. Medium; the phone numbers in the passages are replaced in the held copy. The link opens the item's archive.org page; the passages were read through the full-text search, as the held copy says.
• Group K Between the Lines 1997 (groupk.com): Between The Lines - January 97 to December 97 (Group K, groupk.com), Group K, 1997; enthusiast media, medium. The same shop's comments on the technical items in the PWC magazines of 1997, issue by issue, kept on its site under the heading January 97 to December 97. Read on 2026-10-05 and held as text; the page is current and no earlier capture is held, so the dating rests on the heading and the issue-by-issue layout. Medium as a trade participant's period commentary, cited only for which products it names as existing.
• Sea-Doo Racing Handbook 1998 (archive.org): Sea-Doo Racing Handbook, 1998 edition (Bombardier Inc.; Internet Archive item manualzilla-id-6025632, OCR excerpts), Bombardier Inc., held by the Internet Archive, 1998; manufacturer primary, medium. The craft maker's racing handbook for Sea-Doo racers, dated 1998 by the Internet Archive's item title (its text lists 1996 IJSBA champions and paint codes to 1997). Read from the OCR text on 2026-10-16. Its Aftermarket Manufacturers section lists makers the craft maker says it recommends, each with a line of goods in brackets: Factory Pipe (Exhaust Systems), Hot Products (Racing Parts), Ocean Pro Engineering (Race Parts and Flame Arresters), Westcoast Performance Products (Racing Parts and Carbon Fiber Hulls) and others; its 787 engine section names a Factory Pipe exhaust; a page quotes the Westcoast Performance Products racing team manager. Medium: an independent maker's document, read as OCR, and the list is its recommendation, not a test. Held as excerpts with addresses and telephone numbers removed.
• Sea-Doo Racing Handbook 1996 (archive.org): Sea-Doo Racing Handbook, 1996 edition (Bombardier Inc.; Internet Archive item manualzilla-id-6034982, OCR excerpts), Bombardier Inc., held by the Internet Archive, 1996; manufacturer primary, medium. The craft maker's racing handbook, dated 1996 by the Internet Archive's item title (its paint and porting tables run to the 1996 models). A page quotes the "Pro Racing Team Manager, Westcoast Performance Products", and the Aftermarket Manufacturers and Services list names Westcoast Performance Products among seven makers; the OCR prints the services column apart from the names, so no service is matched to a maker. Factory Pipe, Hot Products and Ocean Pro are not in this edition's list. Medium: an independent maker's document read as OCR. (as Sea-Doo Racing Handbook 1998 above)
• USPTO goods sweep Oct 2026 (tmsearch.uspto.gov): USPTO tmsearch records, goods-text sweep for watercraft under-hull and pump parts marks (read 2026-10-06), United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2026-10-06; government, high. Our extract of USPTO's own trademark search records, read on 2026-10-06 through the search's JSON endpoint with a browser user agent. It prints the six goods-text queries, the rule by which 29 marks were kept from the 85 records returned, and each kept mark's dates, status, owner as printed and goods. High for what the register records. The count it supports is a count of what these queries returned, not of every mark in the trade.
• USPTO record serial 74613791 (tsdr.uspto.gov): Trademark Status and Document Retrieval record, serial 74613791, registration 2005577 (OCEAN PRO), United States Patent and Trademark Office, 1996-10-08; government, high. OCEAN PRO, filed 22 December 1994, registered 8 October 1996, renewed, for marine engine parts and jet boat parts. Registrant KLUS, KENNETH F.; current owner Atlantis Investments, Inc., a California corporation. The record does not date the change of owner.
• USPTO record serial 74532701 (tsdr.uspto.gov): Trademark Status and Document Retrieval record, serial 74532701, registration 2046925 (VORTEX), United States Patent and Trademark Office, 1997-03-25; government, high. VORTEX, filed 3 June 1994, registered 25 March 1997, renewed, for flame arrestors for personal watercraft engines. Registrant KLUS, KENNETH F.; current owner Atlantis Investments, Inc. The first use claimed, 28 April 1988, is the registrant's sworn claim.
• US design patent D317431 (patents.google.com): US design patent D317,431, Jet ski ride plate (USPTO record), United States Patent and Trademark Office, 1991-06-11; government, high. Filed 6 September 1988, granted 11 June 1991, inventor printed as Klus; Kenneth F., no assignee. One claim, the ornamental design for a jet ski ride plate as shown and described; the drawings were not read. It names no company. Held as the USPTO Patent Public Search record; the link is the Google Patents page.
• PWI February 1988 search text (archive.org): Personal Watercraft Illustrated volume 2 number 1 of 1988 (read through archive.org's full-text search), Personal Watercraft Illustrated, read through the Internet Archive's full-text search, 1988; enthusiast media, medium. The item's files are gone from archive.org (its metadata places it in a collection of emptied items), so only the search index's OCR passages could be read: short extracts, not the article. They name Ken Klus as owner of Ocean Pro and quote him on exhaust pipes, and print closed course results naming a Bill Chapin. The February date rests on a page footer read in an earlier probe of the same item.

Changes to this page

• 2026-10-18: Wording on the Ocean Pro page that described how the archive read or kept its sources now says what the archive holds.

Cite this page

“Ocean Pro”, BaddJet archive, https://baddjetarchive.com/key-figures/companies/ocean-pro/

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